Adrian Magson

France, 1963. Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself moved from the Paris metropolis to a small village. His new patch might be rural, but it's certainly not uneventful: on his first day, he finds a murdered woman wearing a Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery. Before long Rocco realises he's up against a formidable enemy who will go to any lengths - even murder - to stop his investigation.

Following an inexplicable ramming and gun attack on a Citroen DS in the middle of open countryside, and a bar brawl involving a group of drunken Englishmen, Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself drawn into what has all the hallmarks of a plot to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle - one of many made on the French leader's life.

Midnight at the exclusive Clos du Lac Spa, near Poissons-les-Marais. A man is standing in the therapy pool. But he's not there for his health; someone has chained him to the bottom and left him to die very, very slowly. Along with the elaborate method of execution, the dead man has Inspector Lucas Rocco's name and number in his pocket...

Picardie, 1963. A truck drops illegal workers by a deserted stretch of canal in the dead of night. Days later, one of them surfaces, stabbed to death. Inspector Lucas Rocco must trace his fellow travellers, but trawling the Algerian community for illegal arrivals is a sensitive and dangerous issue.

Investigative reporter Riley Gavin, abetted by laid-back ex-military cop Frank Palmer, sets out to discover why two ageing, long-forgotten gangland members have been executed on England's south coast. The trail leads to Spain's Costa Del Crime and sparks a chain of grisly murders. Soon Riley and Frank are fighting for their lives, caught in the deadly crossfire of a war to gain control of a criminal empire.

When a minor Paris criminal is found stabbed in the neck on a country lane in Picardie it looks like another case for Inspector Lucas Rocco. But instead he is called off to watch over a Gabonese government minister, hiding out in France following a vicious coup. 

As if that wasn't enough to keep him occupied, Rocco discovers that there is a contract on his head taken out by an Algerian gang leader with a personal grudge against him. With time running out, to catch a murderer and to save his own life, Rocco will be tested like never before.

Murder by suicide? Three senior government officials - a judge, a politician, and an ex-police chief - are all dead by their own hands.

Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself once more working for the Interior Ministry: undertaking an investigation meant to avoid a government scandal and ignoring unpalatable truths. He's soon convinced that a common denominator must be at play...

Rocco uncovers top-level fraud, theft and deception. And when he narrowly survives an attempt on his life, he realises that he has nothing to lose by bringing the truth out in to the open - whatever the risks.

He's a professional shadow. A watcher who provides protection in potentially hostile situations. He works in the background, stays off the record. Often the people he's guarding have no idea he's there. Some people know him as Portman.When two British intelligence agents are despatched to negotiate the release of a group of western hostages in Somalia, veteran MI6 operator Tom Vane realises that something about this operation doesn't stack up. Unwilling to see two promising officers sacrificed in what he believes to be a suicide mission, he covertly hires deep cover specialist Marc Portman to protect them. Heading for the wild and lawless land on the Kenyan/Somali border, Portman soon realises that the British Intelligence Services have been double-crossed. Can he survive long enough to keep his charges alive and prevent a catastrophe?